101–108 of 108 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The reason the location history is not local is because the data is for Timeline, a feature of Google Maps which has its own web site. If the data were only local, I wouldn't be able to use a web browser on my computer to peruse my Timeline and photos from my phone. It would be broken.
What are you talking about? We know google is keeping tracking data despite users turning it off. But Apple is not.
1. I use puretalkusa.com's $20/month phone plan. It comes with 20MB of data per month, then throttles.
2. Disabled Cellular Data
3. Disabled WIFI
4. Never setup or signed in to my Google account from the phone.
5. Disabled anything that gave me any pause about privacy, including Location services.
6. Covered the fingerprint reader with electrical tape.
And still, the other day my phone decided to reboot itself in the middle of the day. I only know this because it played a little jingle. After the reboot, Location services was enabled again. Hmm... I disabled it, but it made me wonder if this wasn't some kind of forced reboot so someone could ping my location. This has happened once before, in the middle of the night - a good time to find out where someone lives.
To add one datum, I turned off location history thinking that meant that Google would use my _current_ location for Maps, Search etc while not storing my _past_ locations. Their interface and messaging did not succeed in dissuading me from this belief, despite the fact that I was explicitly looking for messaging and settings related to protecting my privacy. Was I naive to believe this was even possible in the first…
Protonmail for email
As far as android is concerned the only real alternative is apple. They have their own privacy concerns but at least its possible to create a relatively secure device. Android has a few projects being worked on to fix this, but nothing solid yet (eelo is a good example).
Maps is the hard one for me. I haven't been able to find a privacy respecting alternative. By the nature of the application you have to provide some kind of location data. If you're really trying to cut it out you can just get a list of directions from a start to end point and follow that, but i don't recommend this because it encourages more distracted driving.
DuckDuckGo.com for search, at a g! to any query to have it redirect to google if you can't get the results you need, but most things DDG will find just fine.
For documents I use an skinned emacs called Spacemacs, but that isn't something i'd recommend to everyone and doesn't address problems like live document editing with others.
tl;dr its just really, really hard and inconvenient to keep your data under your control and requires constant vigilance
Edit: Oh and signal works really well for text. It can replace the default messenger on an android phone and encrypt any messages to other signal users transparently while still sending and reading regular texts
"Turning off" location history == Don't show me my location history. It's not like Google (or Apple) is going to actually stop tracking you. I love showing iPhone users the section in Settings where all their location history is. Most have no idea it's there.
The iPhone location history is on your iPhone not at Apple. And Apple doesn’t track you. They cycle identifiers regularly for exactly this reason. Spreading falsehoods about this being something everyone does is harmful because it normalizes the abusive behavior from those that actually do.
All of that server traffic is logged (by both Apple and your carrier), and can be requested by law enforcement if needed. Regardless of what Apple marketing and lawyers would like you to think, your phone is being tracked in real time, always. Always.
To add one datum, I turned off location history thinking that meant that Google would use my _current_ location for Maps, Search etc while not storing my _past_ locations. Their interface and messaging did not succeed in dissuading me from this belief, despite the fact that I was explicitly looking for messaging and settings related to protecting my privacy. Was I naive to believe this was even possible in the first…
I remember that ~20 years ago we called input boxes that remembered your past searches, "intelligent". Yet one of today's top AI companies, can't even do it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If Apple doesn't track me then why does icloud.com force me to re-login every time I switch which country I'm in? How would they know I moved countries (plane/vpn) if I weren't remembering where I was previously?
IP
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The iPhone location history is on your iPhone not at Apple. And Apple doesn’t track you. They cycle identifiers regularly for exactly this reason. Spreading falsehoods about this being something everyone does is harmful because it normalizes the abusive behavior from those that actually do.
In order for your location as given by GPS to be useful, a round trip to a server is made to convert that information into a street address. This geocoding could be done client side, but for practical purposes, it's not. This is even moreso for additional external information mobiles use to better locate you, such as known WiFi access points, "beacons" and cell tower IDs. All of that server traffic is logged (by both…
I’m aware of Apple’s geocoding service. It uses an encrypted connection, so the server traffic is not ‘logged by your carrier’, and they use transient identifiers so your location is not ‘logged by Apple’ and can’t be ‘requested by law enforcement if needed’.
Carriers are a different matter, but don’t make stuff up about Apple.